In a surprising move, AMD pulled the launch date of Radeon HD 7970, a high-performance single-GPU graphics card based on the 28 nm Tahiti silicon, up to December 22, 2011; from its earlier launch date of January 09, 2012. The January date was a lot more than speculation, as older presentation slides from AMD to distributors and retailers talked specifically about it. The move to pull December 22 (next Thursday) spices things up in the run up for CES. First, it gives AIB partners full freedom to show off their custom-design graphics cards at the event, along with full details about GPU specifications and clock speeds.

According to a VR-Zone report, Radeon HD 7970 will launch on December 22, 2011, this will be the day you will be able to read reviews of the card (at least the AMD reference design board), online. It will be a limited launch (read: paper-launch), but one can expect "full" retail availability of the card by January 09. Another interesting bit of information is concerning the Radeon HD 7950. This card will be available in non-reference board designs from day one, it will however launch on January 09.